KidsRights Index 2017: violence and discrimination against children global concern

Monday, 15 May 2017

General

KidsRights Index 2017: violence and discrimination against children global concern

Portugal is lauded as the global frontrunner in the KidsRightsIndex 2017. It owes its first place to strong performances in the fields of child legislation, health and education. Notable examples of underperforming countries include the United Kingdom, which fell from an 11th to the 156th place, and New Zealand (down from 45 to 158).

The annual global ranking which charts countries' performance records concerning children's right, was published by the International children’s rights foundation KidsRights and Erasmus University Rotterdam on Monday 15 May 2017. Its scope is truly unique, as the Index collects data from various reputable sources and identifies global themes and trends in the children’s rights arena.

The Netherlands scores lowerAccording to the UN Children's Rights Committee, the Netherlands scores lower in the KidsRights Index 2017 on two of the seven points measured in domain 5 (Enabling Environment for Child Rights), namely in terms of facilitating legislation and available budget. The Dutch decline on the KidsRights Index reflects the concerns about children in the Netherlands who live in poverty, and on cuts that also affect families and children with a minimum income. Due to the recent decentralization of youth care in the Netherlands, the supply and budget vary by municipality, which allows children in the Netherlands to have unequal access to youth care.

About the KidsRights IndexThe KidsRights Index is the annual global index published by the KidsRights Foundation which charts how countries adhere to and are equipped to improve children’s rights. The KidsRights Index is an initiative of the KidsRights Foundation, in cooperation with Erasmus University Rotterdam: Erasmus School of Economics and the International Institute of Social Studies. It is a ranking of all states that have ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child for which sufficient data is available, a total of 165 countries in 2017. The Index pools data from two reputable sources: quantitative data published and regularly updated by UNICEF at www.data.unicef.org and qualitative data published by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in its Concluding Observations for all states that are legally bound by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

More information

The KidsRights Index’s overall ranking and additional information, including a trend report of the rankings on the individual domains and other available information, are available at www.kidsrightsindex.org.